Enki Bilal presents the lives behind many of The Louvre's lesser-known portraits, and their often violent demises, in this dramatic act of graphic historical re-enactment.



The motley collection of men, women, and children presented in these vignettes - a Roman legionary, a muse, a painter and a German officer, among others - have little in common other than their often violent demises and an eternity spent haunting the iconic Parisian museum. Bilal recounts the life stories of these lost souls in dramatic biographies that combine fiction and historical reality, often evoking the creation of the works in question. The paintings that compose this graphic novel were presented in a special exhibition at the Louvre in early 2013.